[ExI] References for Alien Megastructure Hypothesis regarding Boyajian's Star

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2023-12-27 11:22, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat wrote:
> On 2023-12-26 12:24, Henry Rivera via extropy-chat wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 26, 2023, at 12:08 PM, Keith Henson via extropy-chat
>>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> 24 other blinking stars
>>> in a cluster around Tabby's star
>> 
>> Keith, do you have an online reference for the 24 other objects
>> detected? I can’t seem to find one.
> 
> Schmidt, E. (2022). A Search for Analogs of KIC 8462852 (Boyajian’s 
> Star): A Second List of Candidates. The Astronomical Journal, 163:10 
> Retrieved from 
> https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=physicsschmidt
> 
>> Last I read, large objects causing the dimming of Tabby’s star was
>> ruled out after astronomers noticed the dimming was more pronounced in
>> ultraviolet than infrared. Any object bigger than a dust grain would
>> cause uniform dimming across all wavelengths, apparently.
>> 
>> "This pretty much rules out the alien megastructure theory, as that
>> could not explain the wavelength-dependent dimming," lead author Huan
>> Meng of the University of Arizona said in a statement [1]. "We
>> suspect, instead, there is a cloud of dust orbiting the star with a
>> roughly 700-day orbital period."
> 
> The authors of the paper you cite are astronomers and not solar-cell 
> engineers or exobiologists. Wavelength-dependent dimming only rules out 
> alien megastructures if those megastructures were built by aliens whose 
> solar cell technology is more primitive than our own which seems 
> ludicrous. Our newest generation of solar cells made of Petrovskite are 
> almost transparent to infrared and would reproduce the spectrum of 
> Tabby's star to the resolution that they have measured it.
> 
> The spectrum of Boyajian's star while dimming:
> 
> Elsie_Bayes-x2t0k0.png (750×672) (bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com)

I don't know why the hyperlinks got all screwed up but here they are 
again:

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.edu/dist/a/9476/files/2017/12/Elsie_Bayes-x2t0k0.png

> Note that B is blue light, r' is red light, and i' is infra-red. Figure 
> courtesy of What We’ve Learned About Boyajian’s Star II: Data and 
> Interpretation | AstroWright (psu.edu)
> 
> The absorption spectrum of perovskite-based semi-transparent solar 
> cells:
> 
> nz0c00417_0001.gif (500×384) (acs.org)
> 
> Which was found at Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells | ACS Energy 
> Letters
> acsenergylett.0c00417

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c00417#:~:text=In%20this%20Focus%20Review%20we%20provide%20the%20most,contact%20that%20makes%20the%20solar%20cell%20fully%20semitransparent.


> Since we have already invented solar cells that are transparent to 
> infrared light, Dyson-type megastructures need not be opaque to IR. It 
> is just that NASA astronomers are too specialized to know that.
> 
> Melanin which the biopigment that black fungi use to derive energy from 
> ionizing radiation in a manner similar to photosynthesis would also 
> satisfy the absorption spectrum of Boyajian's star:
> 
> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16063-z
> 
> Stuart LaForge
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